<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>When the sun shines down upon us by RobinWritesChirps</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23807602">When the sun shines down upon us</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinWritesChirps/pseuds/RobinWritesChirps'>RobinWritesChirps</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Black Friday - Team StarKid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Parent-Child Relationship, There’s an alternate reality, Where we’re now a family</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:09:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,558</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23807602</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinWritesChirps/pseuds/RobinWritesChirps</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lex and Tom come home from a few days out of state and are thrilled to be reunited with their family. </p><p>Barnes-Foster-Houston family feels :) Focused on Lex and her beautiful heart full of love and sass.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Becky Barnes &amp; Lex Foster, Becky Barnes/Tom Houston, Lex Foster &amp; Tom Houston</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>When the sun shines down upon us</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nearly two years of living with Tom and Becky were not yet enough for Lex to fully settle into the safety of her new reality.</p><p>Of course, some things remained the same, but twisted ever more to her advantage and she wondered when she would truly have taken it all in. Work was work, though now mostly pocket money rather than paying for the fight to stay alive and her carpentry gigs with Tom were more rewarding than retail had ever been. Struggling to make ends meet was a concern every month, but it was now her guardians’ and was kept well away from her. She still thought of Hannah all day but the old nagging fear that something might happen to her if she let her out of her sight was fading away every day, replaced with the trust that she was well taken care of. Even if she kept sneaking out to meet up with her girlfriend in secret, Deb was welcome at home any day of the week and the result of being caught out past a reasonable time was Tom’s disappointed sigh rather than the endless shouting battles she had used to have with her mother. She hid her weed a little better and never smoked it at home for Tom and Becky’s peace of mind. She stopped drinking. She had gone back to school the same term as Tom, graduated with his help and especially with Becky's, for sure the more clever one of the two. Getting into trades was thanks to him, however, and their business was, if not flourishing, at least keeping the family afloat.</p><p>What was new was something less vital than a real roof over her head, than Hannah having her own clothes, her own toys and going to school, than a real meal three times a day every day with no end on sight. It was Becky teaching her how to drive, Tom smirking at her grumpy face in the morning. It was pulling faces at Tim behind Tom's back to make him laugh, teaching him how to pick a lock despite strong warnings against it, pretending she couldn't play his favorite games to beat his ass all the harder when he bragged about future victories against her. It was a row of five brown paper bags on the kitchen counter every morning with a sweet note inside when Becky prepared them and an extra pack of candy when Tom did. It was coming home after a long day and watching Hannah and Tim compete at whichever game they were into on their tablets from opposite ends of the couch without a look at each other. It was living with people she loved and knowing they loved her.</p><p>Tom was whistling happily behind the wheel after they had switched drivers for the last stretch of the trip. They had been driving for six hours and Hatchetfield was starting to make its appearance on road signs again. Soon, they would be home. They had not said a word since their last bathroom break but Lex was feeling content. They had made use of spring break for a bigger contract out of state fixing up a house all week and, never something she would have believed from herself, she was satisfied with the work they had put in for six days out of home. Honest reward for their hard work. Tom seemed even more chipper than her. His leg was bouncing along with the music on the radio.</p><p>"You're awfully happy," she noted, scrolling down her phone.</p><p>He never looked away from the road, but she glanced to see him smiling in corner.</p><p>"I'm glad to be going home," he said. "Is that a crime?"</p><p>She snorted. In all her years on the trailer park, she had never once looked forward to coming home to her shitty ass home and to the person who owned it. Being truly happy around her new family was still such a recent phenomenon she couldn't help taking it prudently one day at a time. Still, she thought of Hannah, how they had texted every day but nothing was the same as holding her tight in her arms and seeing her cute little face. She too was glad to be back home soon. Tom was always a lot more like herself than she cared to notice.</p><p>"Okay, nerd," she replied with a snort and Tom went back to whistling.</p><p>He was insufferably in love with Becky too, of course, though Lex was too caustic to admit ever finding that cute to some extent. She hadn’t been used to her mother's relationships being this devoted, this tender. She had few good memories of her own father for the simple reason that he had dropped off the surface of the earth by the time Hannah had been born. Even those were different than what she shared with Tom these days. A vague memory of being taken out for ice cream, of going to the swimming pool, that one afternoon he had taken her to drive a truck when she had been merely a toddler, few and far between compared to the ever growing bulk of Tom Houston caring for her in all ways a father ought to every day since he had taken them in. Just the same, he loved his wife as deeply as any spouse should. She hadn’t been used to that at all. She had never known a man before who sincerely loved and craved to be a good father and husband.</p><p>"Becky," he called out as soon as he opened the front door. "Babe, we're back!"</p><p>To his credit, she supposed, Lex had to acknowledge that if Tom was smitten like a teenage boy struck with his first middle school crush, Becky was no better. She all but ran towards them at the sound of his voice, beaming like Tom was something quite different than the thirty-something smelly part-time carpenter back from hours of work in the morning and of driving in the afternoon. After a quick kiss on the cheek for Lex, a kiss was given to Tom, and more. If it had even been meant as quick and chaste in the first place, it turned a little less cutesy as she pulled on Tom’s collar and trapped herself between him and the door as the kiss lingered on despite themselves. Lex nearly wanted to pinch herself to be sure she wasn’t actually back in time next to two jocks making out against her locker. She looked away.</p><p>"Lexi!"</p><p>Hannah was a great distraction as she wrapped herself snug around Lex and grinned up at her warmly. Of course, the gross pair disengaged from one another at some point. Of course, Tim and Hannah were given their greetings as well and the night went on just like any other. One short week wasn’t too long apart, just enough to be missed but not so much as to be agony.</p><p>Tom was in his element again. It had been really nice to catch a few days of quiet, nothing to do but put their arms to work and sleep it off soundly at night, but back with his family, he seemed happier than ever. They ordered food, caught up with the mundane events of the few days apart that hadn’t already been told over text, enjoyed each other’s company. He was chatting with the kids, she with Becky, and life went back to its normal rhythm just like that. They went to bed early, but the kids were whining that they weren’t tired yet and, as tomorrow would be the last day of their break before going back to school, they were allowed to stay up a little longer.</p><p>Hannah had taken to their life change so easily Lex sometimes wondered if she ought to ask more, if she ought to make absolutely sure that there was nothing hiding underneath that she had missed, an unknown discomfort. Hannah never seemed to have much to complain about. She enjoyed Tom best of all, but she was soothed by Becky and got along just fine with Tim, who was just about as easy going as kids could be. She loved having her own space, the wooden fort in her private half of their room Tom and Lex had spent a large chunk of last summer building. She picked her own clothes, her own style, growing more every day. She still played with toys a little but spent some time on her phone too, or leisurely did nothing at all. Lex had always known she could thrive, but she had never truly thought that a normal, quiet life would be in the cards for them, that they could ever find peace. Hannah was showing her every day that they could.</p><p>For now, she was snuggling against Lex in her pajamas. Tim had insisted on some last game before bedtime and as Hannah had declined the competition, Lex had taken him up on the offer and was presently kicking his butt at Mario Kart from across the living room. He kept grumbling and pestering, outraged that she would have such a clear upper hand even playing from the awkward angle of her sister’s embrace, but he was an excellent player and when she won by a huge margin, he congratulated her without an ounce of bitterness. Hannah yawned.</p><p>"Hey there," Lex said, pulling up her face to look at her tired eyes. "You wanna go to bed?"</p><p>Hannah nodded sleepily. Tim was a little harder to convince but a sharp pinch at his waist was enough to prompt him upstairs and after a kiss goodnight each, Lex came back down to help herself to a few cookies from the jar and unwind all on her own in the now quiet house. She still had a little time before getting sleepy and Hannah was already in their shared room. Besides, though she enjoyed time with her family, she loved time alone best of all. Headphones and music, she noticed that Deb had messaged her at some point in the evening and was quick to answer. Outside, the night sky was dotted with stars. She smiled.</p><p>"OH sh…oot…"</p><p>When Becky’s yelp startled her, it was a dilemma of deciding who was more surprised than the other. Her face was flushed pink and she refused to meet Lex’s eyes, who would at any cost be looking any other possible direction anyways. Her headphones dropped around her neck and Becky let out some awkward little sound. She was wearing the plaid shirt Tom had worn today and, judging by the way she swiftly turned around to button it up, nothing else at all. Her hair was down and a little too wavy and tousled for Lex’s taste at the moment. She did not look like she had expected anyone in the kitchen either.</p><p>"Lex, you’re… erm, you’re still up."</p><p>A million snarky retorts gave way to each other in Lex’s mind but none made it past her lips. Becky’s embarrassment briefly reminded her of her mother − for the exact opposite demeanor she could still remember not that many years ago. The two girls shoved out of the trailer whenever one of her boyfriends was around, and they were often around. Lex had always rushed outside, of course, and dragged Hannah behind her to roam the neighborhood idly like a couple of beggars even worse off than they actually were till she deemed that enough time must have passed and the dude would have left. Becky wasn’t the kind of person who threw out kids just like that, was she? In fact, she had taken them in, nurtured them, loved them when their mother would not. Whatever happened behind the door to her and Tom’s bedroom was their business alone. And Lex would rather have spent the rest of her life without thinking about it.</p><p>"It’s not even ten," Lex pointed out. "Yes, I’m still up."</p><p>It wasn’t exactly that she had begged for Becky to mother her. She <em>had</em> a mother, if only by the legal and biological definitions. Her and Becky were close and getting closer every day too but the bond between them often was friendlier than motherly. She wondered if that was what being a great mom might mean, too. She didn’t know what it was like to have a good mother. Hannah had asked her before if they should start calling Becky their mom and Lex had been caught by surprise. She had told her to do as she pleased, of course, but Hannah had said no more on the matter and the switch in appellations had not been made. Perhaps not yet.</p><p>Becky was warm and patient, always compassionate, and she was as undemanding with them as with anyone. If ever one day it came to that, then that would not be at her request but coming from the girls themselves. Lex loved that kind of freedom. There had once been the terrible freedom of raising her sister nearly on her own, of earning a living for fear she wouldn’t eat or sleep if she didn’t. The utter lack of parental authority asking her, teaching her to do any fucking thing in her life. But being free to love, free to heal and rest and grow, that was new. It was better.</p><p>"You…" Becky was shuffling into place, pulling the flaps of the shirt much too big for her even tighter around herself as though if she made it fit better Lex wouldn’t realize that it had been peeled right from Mr Houston the moment they had closed their bedroom door. "You didn’t, er, hear anything, did you?"</p><p>Lex’s eyes snapped to her, wide with shock once more.</p><p>"Thank fucking God <em>not</em>," she said. "I’d be throwing myself from the rooftop if I had, my headphones work great, we’re good. I won’t file for indecent obscenity just yet."</p><p>Becky nodded and gave an awkward chuckle.</p><p>"Good. Good, we were… trying to be quiet…"</p><p>She seemed to unravel at her own words and her cheeks turned crimson. Lex gulped nervously. Maybe chilling in bed quietly without waking up Hannah would be the better choice from now on. They stared at each other awkwardly and Lex saw Becky almost ask something but stop herself. She cocked an eyebrow to prompt the question. Becky fiddled with the hem of the shirt nervously but still asked it.</p><p>"Can you turn around for a sec?"</p><p>Lex frowned.</p><p>"Why, are you gonna flash me if I don’t?"</p><p>Becky sighed and rolled her eyes. Resolutely, she tried to skip the few steps to the fridge as fast as she could and quickly grabbed a can of whipped cream from it before closing it quietly again. Lex blinked.</p><p>"… Oh my god." She grimaced. "Oh my god, are you still at it?!"</p><p>The grin Becky gave her was wicked and the wink even more so. She pressed a kiss on top of Lex’s hair as she passed behind her again on her way back to the bedroom and patted her shoulder.</p><p>"Your headphones work great, don’t they, sweetheart?"</p><p>Lex hoped the max volume would not pierce her eardrums the rest of the night. A family, much as she adored it, came at a cost.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>